SF 487 
. F58 
Copy 1 


EGGS 

The Year Round 

FROM TABLE SCRAPS 

HOW IDLE LAND 
AND TABLE WASTE 
CAN BE TURNED 
INTO DOLLARS 

B Y 

JOEL M. FOSTER 

i » 

AUTHOR OF THE 

“MILLION EGG FARM” 



COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY INTERNATIONAL POULTRY SALES CO. ENTERED AT STATIONERS’ HALL, LONDON. 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES. 


















Introduction. 3 

How to Do It. 6 

Plan 1—Starting With Hatching Eggs. 7 

Statement of Expenses, Receipts, and Profits. 8 

Plan 2—Starting With Day-Old Chicks. 9 

Profit With Plan 2. 9 

Plan 3—Starting With Pullets. 10 

Profit With Plan 3. 10 

Feeding.. 12 

First Feed of Table Scraps. 13 

Specifications for Constructing a 24-Hen “Rancocas” Utility House. 17 

Fig. 1—Plans for a 24-Hen “Rancocas” Utility House. 18 

Fig. 2—Interior Plan View. 20 

Reveries of a Rooster. 23 

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CCU312891 




















Eggs the Year Round From Table 

Scraps 


How Idle Land and Table Waste 
Can Be Turned Into Dollars 


F EW subjects have been so much discussed as that of raising chickens. 

There are grounds for supposing that the first thing Adam and 
Eve did after their investigation of the forbidden brought up the 
problem of the high cost of living was to turn to the hen for a solution. 

And there are equally good grounds for believing that the hen made 
good. 

As a matter of fact, the universal notion that “there’s money in 
chickens’’ has endured through all the ages simply because it has a solid 
foundation in truth. The hen has no special faculties for fooling all the 
people all the time. Her popularity has increased with the years because 
when other things combined to make living hard, her merry cackle—and 
often her expiring gasp—has sounded the note of relief. 

The person doubtful of whether vacant lot or back-yard poultry can. 
be made to pay will do well to question: 

Why are so many in the business? Is it from pure philanthropy that 
the other fellow is eager to supply me with eggs and chickens? Has he 
no other concern than to serve society by protecting against worry me 
and the others that eat his eggs every day and his roosters and elderly hens 
when in the course of human events it becomes necessary to celebrate a 
holiday? 

The answer will readily appear. It will take the form of $. 

The willingness of the back-yard poultryman to publish his tribula¬ 
tions would be astonishing were there not some reason to suspect the 
motive. He will cheerfully supply the cloud so long as you will furnish 
the silver lining. Getting down to brass tacks, he has a good thing and 
isn’t hankering for competition. 

Some of the things he could tell but doesn’t are: 

That table waste turned into eggs will keep a family of 6 in fresh eggs 
every day in the year. 

That you throw enough perfectly good food material into the garbage 
can every day to pay half the cost of keeping a dividend-paying flock of 
hens. 

That you pay fancy prices for fresh or near-fresh eggs during the fall 
and winter months merely because you are paying for fresh eggs out of 
season. 


An Old 
Problem 


Dollars— 
That’s All 


3 



There IS An 
Off Season 


What They 
Learned 


That while some of the “strictly fresh’’ you pay for were really in the 
hen until comparatively recent times, many could prove an alibi if chal¬ 
lenged. 

A fact too often lost sight of is that there IS an off season for eggs as 
well as for strawberries. Strawberries out of season are the outward and 
visible sign of inward and arrogant oppulence. 

Same way with eggs—only we must have them. 

The farmer—most of him at any rate—handles his chickens just as 
Abraham handled his in the country about the Jordan. 

He accepts them as gifts from an all-wise Providence and seems ter¬ 
ribly afraid to interfere with the Providential plan. 

Often his poultry buildings resemble New Year’s Resolutions in being 
“fearfully and wonderfully made.’’ His chickens are alternately overfed 
and underfed. They molt when they will, take all the time they want to 
do it in, and lay when they have to. 

That’s why so many eggs blush when questioned about their age. 

Fancy poultry has been raised scientifically for many, many years. 
But not until recently did the world wake up to the fact that scientific 
methods could be applied to the utility poultry business with results most 
gratifying to the applier. 

For a longer time than you’d think possible, scientific egg production 
was paired with perpetual motion in the minds of poultrydom’s wiseacres. 

When the first edition of the “Million Egg Farm” was issued, people 
read with incredulity the straightforward story of the wonders achieved 
at Rancocas. When they found it stated that the same methods could 
be used with proportionately good results on a farm of any size, many 
gasped and exchanged a knowing wink with the mirror. 

Hundreds that accepted the invitation to visit Rancocas came to laugh 
and stayed to learn. 

They learned that Rancocas methods had caused Rancocas layers to, 
yield about double the number of eggs a year laid by the ordinary barn¬ 
yard hen. 

They learned that it was not only possible, but easy, to have young 
pullets come into the laying age at all seasons, and to get fresh eggs during 
the 80-cent as well as during the 30-cent period. 

They learned that hens could be forced to molt early and get back 
to daily deliveries at the very time when all fresh eggs are a luxury and 
most of them a delusion. 

They learned that watchfulness and a sane feeding system will make 
“chicken diseases’’ a meaningless phrase and cause debility in hens to be 
as scarce as teeth. 

They came, they saw, they marveled. Then they returned home to 
sow the seed of knowledge and reap the reward in gold. 

But, objects the doubting Thomas, the Rancocas plan may be entirely 
practicable for a person with even a modest amount of loose land and 
money, and still be wholly impracticable for the fellow with no land but 
a back yard and no capital but horse sense and a disposition to use it. 

The best answer to such an objection is the fact that discussion of 


4 



back-yard poultry raising was omitted from the first edition of the 
“Million Egg Farm” because the question of just what could be made 
on poultry when only a vacant lot or back yard was available, had not 
been answered to the full satisfaction of the author. Many experiments 
were necessary to determine the cost of housing, feeding, and taking care 
of a back-yard flock. 

Perhaps the most interesting element in the situation was the extent 
to which table waste could be turned into eggs. To determine this fell 
largely to the lot of Mrs. Foster, who put into the investigation the natural 
enthusiasm of a woman for work of the sort. In a paper setting forth the 
result of her experiments she said: 

“With a flock of healthy chickens in the back yard, table waste ceases 
to be a bugaboo to the housewife. 

“The tops of her celery stalks, and the trimmings of her lettuce, cab¬ 
bages, beets, radishes, etc., provide ample green stuff for the flock, and 
the tailings of her steaks and roasts yield plenty of meat food. 

“Even the ashes from her range can be turned to account; for sifted 
ashes make the very best material for the dust baths hens delight in. 

“My experiments were conducted in a back yard with no natural 
advantages not common to back yards generally The results con¬ 
vinced me beyond argument that the table waste of a family of 6 would 
pay half the cost of fresh eggs every day in the year and a chicken dinner 
every other Sunday.” 

Probably the most familiar objection to back-yard poultry raising has 
been the neighborhood hue and cry against the reveille, or morning call 
of the wakeful and boastful chanticleer. 

I shall waive discussion of the advantages of early rising by explain¬ 
ing at once that the Rancocas plan for keeping chickens in the back yard 
is as free from males as a suffragette convention in secret session. 

The Rancocas back-yard unit consists of 24 pullets—every rooster 
found on the premises to be peremptorily condemned and promptly exe¬ 
cuted. The different plans for getting the 24 pullets, and for securing 
eggs from some of them every day in the year, will be explained in the fol¬ 
lowing pages. 

The cost of living is high and nothing in political or economic con¬ 
ditions indicates relief. You pay big prices for food and a big tribute to 
the garbage can. Whatever spare ground you have costs you a high 
rental and yields you little but envy of the landlord or tax collector. 

One man in New York City has made more than a million dollars 
dealing in garbage. Landlords and tax collectors are a veritable chosen 
people. 

Your problem is to lower the cost of living without lowering the stand¬ 
ard, to make the vacant lot or back yard you are paying for yield some¬ 
thing in return. 

The purpose of this discussion is to help you solve the problem—to 
give you a simple, workable, thoroughly tested plan for making chickens 
the solution. 


Tried and 
Proved 


In a Nutshell 


5 


How to Do It 


Giving Some Plain Facts and Telling How to 
Establish a Poultry Farm in Any Back Yard 


Dollars 
and Cents 


The Thing 
to Consider 


Although I can sympathize strongly with those that see in the chicken 
business a source of entertainment and refreshment, I know altogether 
too little about raising chickens for fun to discuss the subject seriously 
here or elsewhere. Besides, I am writing for the great majority to whom 
the problem of mere existence is becoming every day more tangled 
and involved. 

Closing the mind to everything but net returns, then, the reader will 
find the following facts enlightening and interesting. 

At times when eggs are plentiful and the price low, Rancocas receives 
24 cents a dozen for eggs. These same eggs are sold by retailers at from 
36 to 40 cents a dozen. At present—December, 1911— Rancocas eggs 
are bringing 65 cents a dozen in New York. Retailers are getting from 
85 to 90 cents a dozen for them. 

Now, Rancocas is not conducted along purely philanthropical lines. 
When our eggs sell for 65 cents a dozen, we make a clear profit of from 
35 to 40 cents a dozen on them. 

Maybe we’d ought to be ashamed of ourselves, but our stockholders 
don’t think so. Then, too, just so long as the supply of fresh eggs remains 
about 3 seasons behind the demand, just so long will the retail price con¬ 
tinue to hit the sky. 

The thing for you to consider is this: 

If it costs only from 25 to 30 cents a dozen to produce eggs during the 
season when you have to spoil a dollar bill every time you think of an 
omelet, wouldn’t it be to your advantage to produce? 

To this question there can be but one answer— 

“Yes, if I can produce at anything near the rock-bottom.” 

Let us see: 

The cost of your equipment will depend upon your resources. If 
you have $75 to invest, you can build an ideal poultry house such as is 
shown in the plans given in this book and begin with high-grade stock and 
a high-grade equipment throughout. 

If you have little or nothing to invest, you can make a poultry 
house out of second-hand lumber and on a less elaborate plan. Then 
you can get eggs from a farmer or reliable groceryman when the price 
is low, gain possession of a couple of broody old hens, and start the 
ball a-rolling. 


6 


Provided you have a little capital to invest, 3 excellent plans for estab¬ 
lishing a back-yard poultry plant are available: 

FIRST, you can buy hatching eggs and hatch them in an incubator 
or under hens. 

SECOND, you can buy day-old chicks and raise them to maturity. 

THIRD, you can buy pullets just coming into the laying age and have 
eggs from the first day. 

With any of these plans the first expense will be for the poultry house 
and equipment. If built according to the plans and specifications herein 
given (see page 17), the house will cost $40. The equipment necessary 
with all 3 plans—drinking fountains, feed hoppers, a bucket, etc.—will 
cost $3, making a total minimum initial expense of $43. 

Partitioning off 4 feet for your brooding section (see “a” Fig. 2), 
securing an incubator or some broody hens and 100 hatching eggs, and 
putting in an International Sanitary Hover, you will be prepared to 
proceed according to the first plan. 

The Sanitary Hover will cost $8.50, and a 100-egg-capacity incubator 
about $15. To this will have to be added the $40 for your building and 
the $3 for drinking fountains, feed hoppers, etc. With this plan, there¬ 
fore, your expense for building and equipment will be $66.50, to which 
will have to be added $10 for 100 hatching eggs. (This $10 cannot be 
charged against your permanent equipment). 

Your hatching eggs should be bought and set in two lots of 50 each. 

The first hatch should begin about the middle of January, which will 
give you early February chicks. Pullets from this hatch will begin to lay 
in July and keep at it for 4 months. In November about 60 per cent, of 
them will go through a light molt. These will be laying again in January. 

Your second hatch should begin not earlier than April 1 and end not 
later than May 15. The pullets will begin to lay between the 5th and 
6th months (October or November) and continue without interruption 
until the following August. 

The merit of this plan is in the fact that it will give you laying pullets 
throughout the whole year. Were you to set all your eggs in January, a 
majority of your birds would be molting in November—the very season 
when the price of eggs is beginning to give pointers to flying machines. 
If all your birds were April or May hatched, you would get but few eggs 
from them till well into fall. 

The astonishing success of the Rancocas Farm is owing largely to the 
fact that the Rancocas hatching and feeding systems keep the hens work¬ 
ing overtime during the season when the other fellow’s hens are taking 
their annual holiday to molt. 

With ordinary care you should hatch 65 chicks from your 100 eggs. 
Of these 80 per cent., or 52 birds, should be alive and healthy when 6 months 
old. If your hatching eggs were Rancocas Strain stock, 60 per cent, of 
the birds should be pullets. This would give you for your first season 
31 pullets and 21 cockerels. 

The cost of grain food for 6 months will average 4 cents a month for 
each bird. The cost of feeding your flock up to the laying point will be, 


Plan 1— 
Starting With 
Hatching Eggs 


60 Per Cent. 
Pullets 


7 


Returns 


Conservative 

Estimates 


therefore, 4X52X.06, or $12.48. Only grain food is considered, because 
the scraps from your table will supply more than enough green food and 
meat for the flock. 

Should your purpose be to keep no males, you will now dispose of the 
21 cockerels. They will sell readily at 50 cents each, thereby yielding as 
your first income $10.50. Inasmuch as the Rancocas Back-Yard Unit 
consists of but 24 pullets, you will sell also the 7 extra females. These 
should bring an average price of $1.50, which will add to the income 
another $10.50. 

Counting on a yield of but 140 eggs in the pullet year from each bird, 
your first season’s yield will be 24 X140, or 3,360 eggs. Placing an average 
value of 3 cents each on the eggs, your return on the season’s yield will 
be 3,360X.03, or $100.80. 

Inasmuch as you will renew your flock each year, you will dispose of 
the pullets at the end of their laying season. They will average 5 pounds 
each in weight and be worth easily 16 cents a pound. Your return from 
this source will accordingly be 24X.80, or $19.20. 

Recapitulating and striking off 10 per cent, of the value of the house 
and equipment for depreciation, we get the following results: 


Statement of Expenses and Receipts Showing the Estimated 
Net Profit on 52 Birds Incubated and Raised from 100 
Hatching Eggs. First Hatch in February—Second in April. 


EXPENSES 


RECEIPTS 


Hatching eggs. 

$ 10.00 

Sale of 21 cockerels at .50 


Expressage. 

1.00 

each. 

$ 10.50 

Oil for heating incubator. . . 

.50 

Sale of 7 extra pullets at 


Feeding 52 birds 6 months 


$1.50 each. 

10.50 

at .04 each a month. 

12.48 

3,360 eggs at .03. 

100.80 

Feeding 24 birds 11 months 


24 birds marketed at .80 


at .05 each a month. 

13.20 

each. 

19.20 

Depreciation on house and 




equipment. 

6.65 

Total. 

$141.00 



Profit $97.17—more than 


Total. 

$ 43.83 

221 per cent. 



To be sure, your own family will have consumed many of the eggs, 
and several of the young roosters and yearling hens will have served to 
grace your own table. This, however, offers no excuse for omitting them 
from the profit side of the sheet. Indeed, were you to buy the eggs and 
poultry at market rates, you would probably have to pay more for them 
than the prices credited. 

The estimates upon which our statement is based are conservative 
throughout. With the exercise of judgment in disposing of yoiir eggs, 
you can almost certainly get at least 4 cents apiece for them, which would 
add $33.60 to your profits. In addition there is the possibility of selling 
some of your surplus cockerels for much more than 50 cents each, of selling 
hatching eggs as well as market eggs, and so on. 


8 















‘ The Million Egg Farm’’ 


T HE plain, unvarnished story of how the great Ran- 
cocas Poultry Farm, at Browns Mills in the Pines, 
N. J., was built up. A forceful demonstration of 
the fact that great farms from small beginnings grow. 

In “The Million Egg Farm” the story of Rancocas is 
set forth without frills or embellishment. It is a 
romance—yes, but a romance of absolute fact. Not a 
line of fiction was allowed to enter. The object is to 
enable poultrymen to apply Rancocas methods and get 
Rancocas results. 

The book is profusely and beautifully illustrated and 
neatly and durably bound. 


PRICE 

$ 1.00 

THE COPY 


FOR SALE BY THE 


International Poultry Sales Company 

New York Store, 21 Barclay St. BrOWIlS Mills, N. J. 









Buying the right eggs for poultry rais¬ 
ing means that you get your money 
back many times over in increased 
profits. 

We will sell you eggs laid by the finest 
strain of laying hens in the world—eggs 
that will hatch birds with the same 
incomparable laying and breeding quali¬ 
ties as the parent Rancocas White Leg¬ 
horns. We have spent a fortune in 
money and years of study perfecting this 
strain. Rancocas layers are recognized 
everywhere as the record-breaking egg 
producers of the poultry world. They never fail to deliver. 


90 % Fertility Guaranteed 

No risks to run—and when the chicks arrive, they are birds that 
will bring top-notch prices in any market. The eggs are laid at our 
own plant, the largest poultry farm in the world, where 15,000 
Rancocas layers are kept. No pullet eggs are sold for hatching 
purposes. 

If You Prefer 



we will do your hatch¬ 
ing for you—take the 
trouble, stand the loss. 

You can start with a 
clean slate and without 
dread of failure. The 
day-old chicks we send 
you will be thorough¬ 
breds—healthy, hearty, 
hustling, strong. 

We will assume the risk—you will reap the profit. Experience has 
taught us how to get the best results. Why not take advantage o f 


it ? Get your order in early, so you will not be disappointed in your 
booking. Write for prices and shipping dates to 


International Poultry Sales Company 

Box 999 Browns Mills in the Pines, N. J. 

New York Store, 21 Barclay Street 


30644 







The first year’s hatches will carry you from February of one year to 
the middle of August of the next—or until such earlier time as your second- 
season birds, by coming into the laying age, shall make it profitable for 
you to dispose of the older layers. 

Naturally it occurs to you now that since you made preparation to 
accommodate only a certain number of birds, you will have no room to 
take care of additional chicks during each spring and summer. 

The answer to this objection is that you prepared to accommodate 
a certain number of birds during all seasons. Now, the space required to 
hover 100 baby chicks is only about 4 feet, which can always be made 
available at one end of the poultry house in the way shown in 
Fig. 2. Before the chicks shall have attained their growth, spring will 
be at hand. 

Throughout the spring and summer your birds will spend but little 
time in the poultry house during the day; most of the time they will be 
out in the air and sunshine getting their exercise. And inasmuch as they 
will use the house chiefly to roost in, there will be ample room to keep the 
entire flock in comfort till the older birds are disposed of in the fall. 

If your plan were to increase the size of your flock every year, you 
would of course require additional room to meet the increase. So long 
as you have only a vacant lot or back yard to operate in, however, it will 
be better to hold to the Rancocas Back-Yard Unit of 24 full-grown hens 
during the fall and winter months. 

Chief among the advantages of doing one’s own hatching are the 
satisfaction of watching the process of incubation—observing the chick 
from the moment it begins to develop in the shell; freedom from depend¬ 
ence upon others for high-grade baby chicks; and the profit to be derived 
from the sale of baby chicks to neighbors at 15 cents each. 

Many to whom the plan of hatching their own chicks will not appeal 
will nevertheless want to raise their own birds, first because of the diversion 
it will afford from business cares, and secondly because it will appear 
to them a better plan than that of buying pullets in the fall of each 
year and selling them just before their first molt in August of the follow¬ 
ing year. 

Should you prefer to begin with day-old chicks, you will follow the 
same plan as if you were to start with hatching eggs—except that you 
will buy chicks in February and April instead of eggs in January and 
March. 

One hundred day-old chicks bought in two lots of 50 each will cost 
$20—$10 more than 100 hatching eggs, but you will have no incubator 
to buy. 

Having started with 100 chicks instead of with but 65, you should 
have at the end of 6 months 80 vigorous birds, of which 48 should be pul¬ 
lets and 32 cockerels. Selling the cockerels at 50 cents each and the extra 
pullets at $1.50 each, you will reap as your first income $52. 

From this time on your profits will be the same as if you had started 
with hatching eggs. All things considered, it is probable that your profits, 
year in and year out, will be about the same whether you begin with 


Plenty of 
Room 


Plan 2— 
Starting With 
Day-Old 
Chicks 


9 



Plan 3— 
Starting With 
Pullets 


How to Go 
About It 


hatching eggs or baby chicks—that is, they will be about 220 per cent, on 
your investment. 

Hundreds that would like to keep a flock of chickens in the back yard 
are deterred because they are disposed to magnify the labor and risk 
involved in hatching and raising chicks. Wincing under the necessity 
of paying fancy prices for eggs of doubtful quality, they would be glad to 
find relief by keeping hens of their own; but they dread the problems of 
incubating and brooding. 

The simple truth is that with good eggs, a good incubator, a good 
hover, and common sense, there is little or no risk, and a lot more recreation 
than labor, in hatching and raising chickens. 

Many a victim of the nerve-racking habit of carrying home at night 
the cares and worries of the day has found recreation and forgetfulness in 
“watching a hatch” and lending a hand to the chicks during the critical 
early days. Many a woman longing for something to break the pitiless 
monotony of her week-in-and-week-out grind has found a wonderful 
delight in “tending the eggs” and visiting with the animated little 
cotton balls that flash in and out of the hover. It is remarkable how 
little is sometimes required to change the current of a life. The satisfac¬ 
tion of “raising our own chicks” has proved a channel of happiness 
for hundreds. 

But the person doubtful of this need not remain at the mercy of others 
because of his doubts. He can buy pullets just coming into the laying 
age, keep them during their pullet year, and market them at the end of 
their laying season just before the first molt. 

Should you determine upon this course you will buy 12 February 
hatched pullets about July 1, and 12 April or May hatched pullets in 
September. 

As with both the other plans, your building will cost $40, and your 
drinking fountains, feed hoppers, etc., $3, a total of $43. 

The cost of your pullets will be $2 each, or $48 for the flock, and the 
expressage on them will be about $2.50. They will eat—in addition to 
your table scraps—about 5 cents worth each a month of grain food. The 
cost of feeding for the year will be, therefore, 24X12X.05, or $14.40. 

Counting on an egg yield of but 140 eggs from each bird for the pul¬ 
let year, and placing a value of but 3 cents apiece on the eggs, your 
return from this source will be 24X140X.03, or $100.80. 

Your birds will now be marketable at an average price of 80 cents each. 
Placing this value upon them, your meat return will be 24X.80, or $19.20. 
Adding $19.20 to $100.80, we get $120 as your income for the season. 
Summarizing and allowing 10 per cent, for depreciation on your house and 
equipment, which cost $43 and will last for years, we have: 


Receipts.$120 00 

Expense. 69.20 

Profit.$ 50 80—a little more than 136 per cent. 


The difference between 136 per cent, and 220 per cent, represents the 


10 






profit you will have to pay the other fellow if you let him raise your birds 
for you. In my opinion the one soul-satisfying way to make chickens in 
the back yard decrease the cost of living and furnish oil for the overworked 
machinery of life is to hatch and raise one’s own chicks. By doing this 
you will reap not only the maximum profit in dollars and cents, but the 
supreme satisfaction of feeling that your success is altogether your own. 

If you can think of any business that will yield in dollars and satisfac¬ 
tion a better return than can be secured from a flock of chickens, you have 
it on me. I cannot. 


I Wouldn’t 
Pay It 







24 Hen ^ ** 
"Rancocas" 


Utility Hou^e 


, >•* 
















II 






















































Feeding 


One of the Most Important Problems the 
Back-Yard Poultry man Has to Deal With 


Comfort the 
First Feed 


The Feeding 
Board 


We shall begin here by assuming that you have never seen a baby chick 
and wouldn’t know a “layer” if you were to meet one on the street. In 
other words, we shall start you at the foot of the ladder and lead you rung 
by rung to the top. 

Regardless of whether you break in with hatching eggs or baby chicks, 
your first feeding problem will be to take the little chicks along the right 
road. 

The first thing to feed your chicks is comfort. 

In order to provide this, and to make sure that everything is in good 
working order, it will be advisable to heat your hover for two days before 
putting the chicks under it. The floor of the hovering place must be 
covered with 1 inch of clean sand, on top of which there must be at least 
1 inch of litter. Cut straw makes the best litter, though cut hay or mow 
scrapings will serve. If clean sand is not available, ashes, dry earth, or 
an extra inch of litter may be used. 

The temperature under the hover should be maintained at 92 degrees 
during the first week. 

Your chicks should be placed under the hover 24 hours after the hatch 
has been completed—or immediately upon their arrival if you bought them 
already hatched. Chicks must be left in the incubator at least 24 hours 
after the hatch in order to dry out. 

Provided you hatch your own chicks, the best time to transfer them 
to the hover will be about 3 o’clock in the afternoon. 

Running entirely around the hover, and about 4 inches away from the 
curtain at the beginning, there should be a circle of building paper or some 
similar material from 8 to 10 inches high. Enough of the paper should 
be lapped to permit of enlargement of the circle every day or so till the 
chicks have learned to run to the hover for warmth, after which the paper 
wall can be taken away. 

A strip of building paper 12 feet long will give ample material. 

A board about 2 feet long and 8 inches wide should be placed in the 
yard or run to hold the first feed of grit and be used thereafter as a feeding 
board. Lengths of ordinary building laths should be tacked to the four 
sides of the board so as to form a rim around it and keep the grain from 
rolling off. 

The feeding board, containing a little grit, but no food, should be in 
the hovering pen when the chicks are put there. 


12 


At about 10 o’clock, on the morning after the chicks have been placed 
under the hover, their drinking fountains should be filled with clean water 
from which the chill has been taken off. The temperature of the water 
should be between 60 and 70 degrees, and the fountains should be so placed 
that the chicks can get at them easily. Be sure to have the fountains level, 
so as to prevent water from running over into the litter. Should any of 
your litter become wet, replace it promptly with dry litter. 

From this time on, fresh water should be kept within easy reach of 
your chickens during every hour of their lives. 

Begin feeding rolled oats—plain Quaker Oats such as you can buy at 
almost any grocery store—about 4 o’clock in the afternoon of the day 
following the transfer of your chicks to the hover. 

Do not cook the oats. Feed them just as they come to you from the 
store. 

Take a small pinch, about what you can hold between three fingers 
and the thumb, crumble it a little, and scatter it on the feeding board. 
When the chicks have disposed of this, put more on. You will find that 
for the first 3 days a pinch will be required every 2 or 3 hours. 

Be careful to see that your chicks have cleaned up their food before 
giving more to them. Throw a little of it into the litter after the third 
day and make them scratch up an appetite—just as you and I should do 
between meals. 

On the morning of the third day after beginning to feed rolled oats, 
you should have on hand a preparation called “Baby-Chick Feed,” which 
you will be able to buy from any reliable poultry supply house. 

During the next 7 days this chick feed should be given to the chicks 
just as the rolled oats were—that is, small pinches of it should be scattered 
on the feeding board and in the litter. After the 10th day all grain food 
should be thrown into the litter. The necessity of scratching for it will 
sharpen the- appetite of the chicks. 

I would recommend that, provided your birds have picked up all the 
grit, you put a little more on the board about the 4th or 5th day—not 
much—just a small pinch or so. Chickens chew their food with a gizzard 
instead of with teeth. Grit in the gizzard is helpful to good digestion in 
the hen. 

Beginning with the 10th day you should be ready with a pound or two 
of fine, sifted charcoal, and about the same amount of very fine oyster 
shell. You should now make a mixture of one part charcoal and one part 
oyster shell, of which mixture you should put a sprinkling on the feeding 
board every 2 or 3 days. 

By this time it will be unnecessary to provide grit so often, because the 
chicks will be spending considerable time on the ground, where they will 
scratch up nearly enough grit and sand. 

When the chicks are 7 days old they will have arrived at the time when 
some of your table scraps can and should be fed to them. Take the tail¬ 
ings of your steaks, roasts, chops, and other meats, grind them in a meat 
chopper, and—for the first 2 days—feed the meat to your chicks in the 
proportion of 3 tablespoonfulls a day for 100 chicks. 


Water 


Don’t 

Overfeed 


Table Scraps 


13 



More 

Scraps 


And Still 
More 


You can gradually increase the quantity of meat food as your birds 
grow older; but you must be careful not to feed too much to the young 
birds, because—owing to the high percentage of protein concentrated in 
meat—it would satisfy their appetites and cause them to neglect their 
grain. This would keep down their weight and therefore their value as 
broilers. 

You may begin to feed also about the 8th day some of your waste 
lettuce leaves, cabbage leaves, celery tops, beet tops, etc., to which should 
be added about the 14th day a part of your left-over mashed potatoes, 
fried potatoes, and cereals. All these—and almost any other left-over 
food you may have—should be run through the meat chopper and fed to 
the chicks in small quantities. 

For the first week or two it will be better to chop up fine your green 
stuff (cabbage leaves, lettuce leaves, celery tops, etc.). After that gather 
it up, tie a string around it, and hang it where the chicks will be able to 
get it only by jumping up and pulling off a little bit at a time. This will 
give them good exercise. 

Do not worry in the least because your flock will not be able to eat 
all your table scraps at this time. As the birds grow older they will require 
more and more of the particular kind of nourishment to be found in table 
leavings. 

This process of feeding with baby-chick grain, meat scraps, and vege¬ 
table table leavings should be followed until the chicks are about 8 weeks 
old. The first feed of the morning and the last feed in the evening must 
positively be grain food. At noon table scraps should be fed. 

As the birds begin to come into the broiler age, it will be well to include 
in their table scraps boiled potatoes, macaroni, cooked oatmeal—every¬ 
thing you have, in fact. This will aid greatly in making fat. 

Once the birds have reached the age of 3| months, they should be fed 
all the table scraps possible. The last feed in the evening, however, 
should always be of grain in the litter. Of course if you have not enough 
table scraps to satisfy the appetite of the flock, you must make up the 
shortage with grain food. 

Right here I want to call your attention to the feeding of one waste 
that occurs occasionally in every household—namely, sour milk. This, 
if fed continually, will cause a 25 per cent, increase in the egg yield over 
the yield of hens fed chiefly on grain and water. 

When you have any sour milk, put it on the back of your stove in a 
vessel or dish and allow it to come to a curdled or clabbered state. Then 
put it in a pan and place it where the hens can get at it. Any time you 
have sour milk, clabber it and feed it to your hens. Should they fail to 
eat it all today, they will finish it tomorrow or some other day. 

Don’t be afraid that because there may be a little pepper or salt in 
your table scraps, they will be harmful to the chicks. Pepper and mustard 
actually stimulate laying; and salt—though it must not be fed in lumps— 
is good in small quantities. 

Your next concern will be with the time when the birds have come into 
the laying age—between their 5th and 6th months. 


14 





You will then secure a small combination hopper, fill one side of it with 
cracked oyster shell and the other side with medium-sized charcoal, and 
keep it within reach of the birds at all times. 

The oyster shell can be bought of any poultry supply house. Inas¬ 
much, however, as pullets prefer fresh oyster shells to the dry shells big 
poultry farms have to buy, you will obtain fully as good results by having 
your boy go to some sea-food house on Saturday afternoon, get some oyster 
shells, and smash them up fine with a hatchet. This, by furnishing agree¬ 
able exercise for the boy, will keep time from hanging on his hands. 

Charcoal is the only tonic used on the Rancocas Farm. By absorbing 
gases in the digestive tract, it keeps the digestive organs in good condition 
and protects the birds against disorders. 

Of course the chicks you secured in April or May will be treated at 
every stage in just the same way as those hatched in February. 

We have now discussed the feeding of your flock up to the beginning 
of winter. 

In connection with winter feeding I wish to impress upon you the fact 
that corn should be fed to chickens only as a generator of heat. Corn 
is necessary during the winter months because without it the chickens 
would be unable to stand the severe temperature. In the feeding of your 
evening grain—which must be made up of wheat and corn—follow this 
rule: 

When the temperature is about 40, give a mixture of one-third corn 
and two-thirds wheat; when the weather becomes frosty, the mixture 
should be composed of equal parts of corn and wheat; in December, 
January, and February—if the weather runs about 15 degrees above 
zero—the proportion should be 3 parts corn to 1 part wheat; with the tem¬ 
perature below 15 degrees above zero, the evening feed should be all corn. 
When you have fed an all-corn food at night, throw into your litter the 
next morning a little wheat. 

The birds should be given at night just what food they will clean up— 
though a little should be left in the trough for the bashful and late 
comers. Care should be taken to keep the hens from getting too fat, 
because overfat birds will not lay up to full capacity. 

It is not necessary to use nest eggs. 

The hen with an egg in her will be impelled to lay it—not by means 
of counterfeit hen fruit in the nest—but from a course of feeding that will 
so develop the egg as to make her eager to place it on exhibition. 

In the housing of chickens it is important to keep the perches clean, 
remove the droppings, provide new litter when the old has become foul, 
and supply fresh drinking water. You should secure a spray pump (it 
can be bought for 50 or 60 cents) and spray the perches and perch poles 
with a solution of kerosene and napthaline flake—mixed in the proportion 
of 16 parts kerosene to 1 part napthaline flake. This will kill mites, which 
are likely to gather under the perches and poles where birds roost at night. 
In addition you should get a good lice powder after your birds are 2 weeks 
old and put it on them in the evening while they are on the roosts. Rub 
some powder into each bird, beginning at the tail and working up to the 


Your Boy’s 
Part 


A Good Rule 


Important 


15 


Chicken 

Dinners 


head. By working against the feathers, you will cause the powder to cling 
to them. 

When explaining why you will be able to accomodate your whole 
flock during all seasons, we referred to the way in which you will partition 
off 4 or 5 feet at the end of the poultry house and use it to brood one 
year’s baby chicks while the preceding year’s birds are providing your 
daily breakfasts and occasional sponge cakes. 

A point not heretofore touched upon, however, is this: 

The birds hatched in February of the first year will begin to lay early 
in the summer; the April or May hatched birds will come into laying in 
the fall, while a small percentage of the older pullets are molting. 

Naturally there will be a time—during February, March, April, May, 
and June of the second year—when all the 24 pullets will be laying. At 
this time the egg yield from 24 pullets should be from 18 to 20 eggs a day. 

Now, unless yourself and family can eat from 18 to 20 eggs a day, I 
would suggest that you treat yourself to 6 or 8 chicken dinners—making 
the less likely looking pullets provide the treat. This, because in July 
and August the early second-year pullets will come into laying and work 
hard. 

And remember: No matter what rules I might lay down for the 
feeding and care of your chickens, you might profitably depart from them 
at times according to your own best judgment. It is not unthinkable 
that you might work out some excellent idea that never occurred to me. 

Should you get into any trouble with your flock, write to me freely. 
None of us can teach the other fellow without teaching ourselves—and 
I pity the man that is not eager to learn. 


IS 


Specifications for Constructing a 24 - 
Hen “Rancocas” Utility House 

General 

The site selected for the house should be in the back yard, wherever 
convenient. The front should face the south as nearly as possible. The 
location should not be in a hollow place, where surface water will collect and 
form a pool, but should be as high and dry as circumstances will permit. 

In these specifications we have specified mostly hemlock. If, however, 
you can purchase other lumber more cheaply, you may use it. 

Foundation 

Should you desire to build a concrete foundation, first stake out the 
dimensions according to the measurements on the plan in Fig. 1. Then 
excavate a trench 9 inches wide and deep enough to extend below the 
frost line, which, in a cold climate, will be anywhere from 1 foot to 2 feet 
deep in sandy soil, and from 2 to 3 feet deep in clay soil. Have the bottom 
of the trench level all around. 

Now box in the trench with wood, thoroughly bracing it on the sides 
to make a “form” to receive the concrete. Make the top of the box level 
wdth the point intended for the wall head, allowing 7 inches for the thick¬ 
ness of the wall. The level of the wall head should be 3 inches above the 
ground at its highest point. 

Mix 1 part of Portland cement with 3 parts of clean sharp sand and 
4 parts of clean gravel, cinders, or broken stone. Mix these thoroughly 
in a dry condition—then add water and mix thoroughly with a shovel to 
the required consistency. 

Dump the concrete into the trench, stamping it thoroughly. Once 
you have begun this work, do not stop until the cement is all in and the 
top of the wall head smoothed down to a level. Leave the forms up till 
the cement is hard. Then remove them and proceed to lay the cement floor. 

Level the ground inside the walls 3 inches below the wall heads, tamp¬ 
ing the ground thoroughly. Then cover the ground with two-ply tar 
paper. Now mix some more cement concrete in the proportion specified 
and spread it on top of the tar paper to a depth of 2^ inches. Stamp it 
solidly in place and bring it to a level surface. 

Walls 

Lay a hemlock 2X4 sill all around the wall head, making the outer 
edge of the sill flush with the outer face of the foundation. Halve and 
spike the sills thoroughly at the corners. 


Location 


Concrete 


Cement Floor 


Sills 


17 




Fig. 1 














































































































































































































































































































L se 2X4 hemlock studs set approximately 18 inches on centers. The 
height of the studs in the front to be 7 feet 10 inches, and in the rear 
5 feet 10 inches. Place a stud at each side of the door, at each corner of 
the building, and at each side of the windows. The studs being erected 
and made perfectly plumb, hold them temporarily in position by braces 
stitched at the top. 

The sheathing should be preferably 8 or 10 inches wide by f-inch 
thick. It should be nailed across the studs horizontally, beginning at 
the wall head and working up. Allow the lowest board to hang down over 
the concrete 1 inch to prevent water from working in under the sill. 

All sheathing boards must be laid with edges abutting tightly against 
each other, thus making a flush wall. Each board should be secured with 
three 8-penny wire nails to each stud it crosses. 

Openings in the Walls 

The plan shows 1 door, 2 windows, and 2 openings (10 inches by 14 
inches) for the chickens to get into the yard. Leave these openings while 
sheathing the building. 

Over both the windows run a beam of two 2X4’s securely spiked 
together with 10-penny nails. The studs at each side of the windows must 
be cut down 6 inches. The beam over the windows will be 11 feet long, 
each end resting on a 2X4 stud and spiked to it. 

The sheathing board in front of this beam must run the full length of 
the building and be securely nailed with 10-penny nails to the beam as a 
reinforcement. 

The window sill should be 10 feet long and made of 2X4 selected 
hemlock. The upper edge should be 3 feet above the floor level and 
securely toe-nailed to the stud at each end with 10-penny nails. 

Between the 2 windows place a vertical 2X4 stud with the 4-inch side 
facing the front. This will leave 1 inch space in front and 1 inch space 
at the back for the sashes to slide in horizontally. 

The muslin frames should be made of f in. X 2 in. planed pine, halved 
and braced at the corners. Each frame should be covered with muslin, 
folded over and tacked with carpet tacks 4 inches apart. These frames 
should be made to fit the opening snugly, so that when closed they will 
be air-tight. 

Cover the entire opening of both windows with 1-inch mesh, galvanized 
wire netting, securely nailed with f staples all around. 

The chicken doors should be 10 inches wide and 14 inches high above 
the sill. At each side of each opening nail a strip 2 inches wide and 2 feet 
high, of f-inch material. On top of this nail a strip of the same height 
and thickness, but 3 inches wide. This will provide a channel or guide 
for a sliding door 12 inches wide and 15 inches high, which should be fitted 
inside the strips. On the upper edge of each door fasten a screw eye, 
and at a convenient height in the wall fasten a hook, so the door can be 
held open. 

Over the door opening run a 2X4 lintel, projecting 1 inch below the 
top of the door. Finish the edges of the sheathing at the sides of the door 


Studs 


Sheathing 


Windows 


Sashes 


Chicken 

Doors 


Door of 
House 


19 


Joists 

Sheathing 

Waterproofing 


Nest Boxes 


1 inch back on the 2X4 studs, so that when the door is closed it will butt 
against the studs and lintel and keep out the cool air. The door may be 
f-inch hemlock, the same as the walls, but made with vertical strips; 
and it should be held together with two f-inch by 8-inch-wide cross-timbers 
and one f-inch by 8-inch-wide diagonal brace inside, as shown. On the 
door screw securely two 4-inch iron T hinges and use a latch, clasp, and a 
good padlock. 

Roof 

Run lengthwise of the building from sidewall to sidewall two 2XG 
selected, straight-grained joists, securely spiking the ends to the studs. 

Cover the top with hemlock sheathing 8 or 10 inches wide and f-inch 
thick, running the boards from front to back and allowing both ends to 
project 1 foot. Nail the end boards so they will project over the side walls 
3 inches. Nail all these boards securely with 8-penny nails. 

Cover the entire roof with waterproof roofing felt. Begin with a 
horizontal layer at the back of the roof, running from sidewall to sidewall. 
Then put on succeeding layers with asphalt cement between them at the 
joints, and give an overlap of 3 inches at each seam. Nail the seams 
3 inches apart with f-inch nails and tin disks. These come with the roofing 
felt. Turn the felt down 2 inches all around the edge of the roof and nail 
it securely with tin disks 3 inches apart. 

Cover all the walls and the door on the outside with roofing felt, making 
the joints vertical. Overlap, cement, and nail them close with nails and 
tin disks. Be careful to have no opening at the wall heads for cold air 
to blow through. 

Interior Equipment 

Build of f-inch material, and as a separate fixture, a row of 8 nests, 
and screw them against the studs under the windows. The bottom may 



Fig. 2 

be of two 8-inch boards. The front board should be 4 inches wide. The 
back may be made of two 8-inch boards. The partitions between the 


20 













































nests should be cut at an angle. At the top of the back board nail over 
the partitions a board 8 inches wide. As a lid for all the nests, use a 
f-inch by 10-inch board the full length of the space they occupy. Secure 
this to the 8-inch top board with three 3-inch butt hinges, so that the board 
can be folded back against the windows during the day. 

Construct a dropping board as shown in the plan. 

On the face of the studs at the rear wall nail a | in. X 3 in. strip the 
full length of the dropping board. At the corner place a 2X4 post run¬ 
ning up 10 inches higher than the dropping board. At the front, as a sup¬ 
port for the dropping board, nail one end of a 2X4 on edge to the post. 
Nail the other end to the stud at the wall. Lay the dropping board on this 
2X4 and on the strip previously nailed to the back wall. The dropping 
board should be composed of f-inch matched boarding, with the joints 
running from front to back. Leave a clearance of 1 inch between the 
dropping board and the grain bin. 

Nail a 2X4 on edge from the top of the aforesaid post to the corre¬ 
sponding stud at the back wall. Nail a strip | in. X 3 in. on the face of 
the studs, at the other end of the dropping board, to carry the perch poles. 
Make the perch poles of 2 in. X 3 in. material. 

Construct a grain bin of f-inch material, with a partition in the mid¬ 
dle and with a slanting cover, so the birds will not be able to roost on it. 

Exterior Equipment 

The box show T n at the left of the door is a manure box, which should 
be built of f-inch material and provided with a tight-fitting cover. 

Although we show a 12 ft. X 12 ft. run, it will be better if a longer run 
can be made, say a run of 20 feet the full width of the building. 

The fence will prove most satisfactory if constructed as follows: Use 
1-inch mesh netting 2 feet up, the lower 4 inches being sunk into the 
ground. Use 4 feet of 2-inch mesh wire for the upper part. Around the 
top slope the netting in at an angle of 45 degrees, with an overhang 
of 2-inch mesh wire 18 inches wide. This overhang will usually prevent 
chickens from flying over the fence. It should be held up at the corners 
by braces. A gate should be placed near the door of the laying house. 

For the Baby Chicks 

In Fig. 2, showing the interior of the laying house, there is indicated 
with dotted lines a wire-mesh partition and a gate. The partition should 
be 6 feet high. For 2 feet above the ground the partition is to be con¬ 
structed of 1-inch mesh wire netting, and for the remaining 4 feet to the 
top, of 2-inch mesh wire netting. The purpose of the partition is to pre¬ 
vent the layers from flying into the compartment reserved for the baby 
chicks, which are to be raised under the International Sanitary Hover 
shown at the lower left-hand corner of the figure. 

Outside the house, in the yard, a similar fence is to be constructed, as 
indicated by the dotted lines. This temporary fence should be provided 
with a gate through which a person may enter the layers’ yard. 

21 


Dropping 

Board 


Roosts 

Grain Bin 

Manure Box 

Runs 

Fence 



How Do YOU 
Keep the Ball 
Rolling ? 


I S it a heart-breaking struggle with hard 
work and small pay? Are you some¬ 
times filled with dread because you seem 
to be slipping in spite of all you can do? 

Well, what can you do? 

What position are you qualified to fill 
that any one of a million others could not 
hold down? 

Can you read a working drawing or make 
one? Can you design a building or a piece 
of machinery? What do you know about 
mechanical or electrical or mining or civil 
engineering? 

Can you run an automobile and repair it 
in an emergency? Can you write a business- 
fetching ad or trim a window so it will 
make sales? Dare you offer yourself to 
any firm as a well trained man ? 

Could you pass a Civil Service exami¬ 
nation? 

The business of the International Corre¬ 
spondence Schools is to make men master 
of the work of their choice—to equip 
them for positions that will take the 
sting out of the high cost of living. 

It will cost you nothing but postage 
and place you under no obligation to learn all about the I. C. S. plan to 
make you master of the work you like. There are Courses in 


Poultry Farming 
Automobile Running 
Mine Superintending 
Bridge Engineering 
Plumbing 
Steam Fitting 
Concrete Construction 
Civil Engineering 
Textile Manufacturing 
Stationary Engineering 
Telephone Engineering 
Mechanical Drafting 
Mechanical Engineering 
Electrical Engineering 
Electric Lighting 
Agriculture 


Electric Railways 

Structural Engineering 

Railroad Construction 

Metal Mining 

English Branches 

Gas Engineering 

Sanitary Plumbing 

Civil Service 

Architecture 

Chemistry 

Spanish 

French 

German 

Italian 

Commercial English 
Building Contracting 


Architectural Drafting 
Industrial Designing 
Commercial Illustrating 
Window Trimming 
Show-Card Writing 
Advertising 
Stenography 
Bookkeeping 
Cotton Manufacturing 
Woolen Manufacturing 
Toolmaking 
Foundry Work 
Pattern making 
Blacksmithing 
Surveying 
Salesmanship 


Since it costs nothing to investigate, why hesitate? Send a post card to the 


International Correspondence Schools 

Box 1248 Scranton, Penna. 


22 





Reveries of a Rooster 


Overfat hens mean empty nests. 

How long we’ve lived not years but liars tell. 

To turn hens into dollars you must use common sense. 

The female of our species is more welcome than the male. 

Man wants but little here below, and most of him is getting it. 

The ‘'strictly fresh” you see so often may have reference to the clerk. 

Believe me, my countrymen, there is no such thing as a pretty good egg. 

Keep your hens in comfort and they’ll do their best to return the compliment. 

Seest thou a man diligent in business—let him look out for the Attorney 
General. 

If it be true that I would rather crow than work, is it not equally true of the 
rest of men? 

Consider now the hen, who tries not to attract attention till she has first 
delivered the goods. 

It has taken the world a long time to wake up to the fact that there is a 
science of poultry raising. 

The old idea was trust to luck and get eggs sometimes. The new idea is 
use intelligence and get eggs all the time. 

With eggs 60 cents a dozen and steak 30 cents a pound, it must keep the 
common people busy trying to decide whether to keep their hens for eggs or kill 
them for meat. 

’Tis something in the dearth of fame, though linked among a henpecked race, 
to feel at least an honest shame, even as I crow suffuse my face; for what is left 
the rooster here—the ax for Mr. Chanticleer. (Apologies to Byron.) 


23 







J 

may 20 m 


library of congress 



0 002 866 945 8 


Eleven Points of Superiority 
Possessed by the 


International Sanitary Hover 




(1) It is warmer at the curtain than near the center. This causes the chicks 
to distribute themselves just back of the edge of the curtain, where they have a 
constant supply of fresh air and plenty of room. (2) It is entirely circular and 
has no corners for the chicks to crowd into. (3) The lamp holder can be lifted 
out through the top of the hover by a person standing up. This makes it unneces¬ 
sary for the operator to kneel in dust or mud to tend 
his lamp. (4) It can be carried around with ease 
and used' anywhere, thus making unnecessary the 
building of an expensive brooder house. (5) No 
carpenter work is required in connection with it—no 
cutting of holes nor building of platforms. (6) It 
is complete in itself and ready for use wherever it 
may be dropped. (7) It is metal throughout (except 
the curtain, of course) and is therefore vermin proof 
as well as fireproof. Unlike the wooden hover, it 
will not absorb dirt and hold it. (8) The inch of 
selected insulating material between the two layers 
of the top prevents excessive radiation of heat 
upward from the cover. Plenty of heat is radiated 
downward upon the backs of the chicks. (9) It 
cannot be burned nor broken and cannot warp and 
fall apart. At the worst it can only be dented or 
kinked through rough usage. (10) Although portable—easy to carry around 
and usable anywhere — it provides nearly 
two hundred square inches more hovering 
space than any other hover. (11) It gives 
ample heat under the hover without so heat¬ 
ing the surrounding floor space as to cause 
leg weakness among the chicks. 


To take 
temperature 
just lift out 
thermometer 
and read 


The International Sanitary 
Hover raises chicks and stops 
there—it doesn’t raise trouble 


International Poultry Sales Company 

Browns Mills in the Pines, N. J. 

Send for 1912 Illustrated Catalog New York Store, 21 Barclay Street 


24 

















